Desk organizers for paper, files or the like have taken a variety of forms. A prior structure is one consisting of a flat base and a plurality of spaced upright dividers extending from the base and defining compartments for the reception of materials.
The construction described above has numerous drawbacks. First of all, the dimension of the compartments defined by the partitions is generally fixed. Thus, if a single sheet of paper or thin matter is disposed in the compartment, it will not be securely held and might escape from the holder.
Another drawback with the above design is that it is generally fairly expensive to manufacture. The structure may be molded as a unit or require substantial assembly at the factory. The completed article is generally shipped in an assembled state and may be quite bulky. Consequently storage and shipping costs can be substantial.
An alternative design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,752, to Taber, and specifically in FIG. 13. In Taber, a rigid L-shaped base is provided to which a continuous strip of flexible, resilient plastic material is attached. The material is shaped to form a series of loops progressively varying in size, with the loops anchored in spaced positions along the base. To maintain the configuration of the loops and to develop a compressive force between successive loops, a resilient foam material fills the voids within and expands the loops. Objects are frictionally maintained between adjacent loops.
Several of the drawbacks in the previous construction are also apparent in the Taber structure. The construction of the rack is fairly complex in that the loops must be anchored in several spots across the extent of the base. To anchor the strip, one must work between the numerous loops which is a tedious operation. Further, after assembling the strip with the base, a separate operation must be performed to fill the voids with the foam, without which the invention would be ineffective. As the manufacturing becomes increasingly complicated, the attendant costs rise proportionally. Because the assembly of the Taber rack is complicated, preassembly is dictated. The rack is quite bulky and as with the prior construction, represents a substantial investment in storage and shipping.
The present invention is directed specifically to overcoming the problems enumerated above.